


Derek's Old Guitar

by Sonamae



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, Ghost Imprints, It's got Derek in it though, Music solves Sadness, So what do you expect?, Stiles is magical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 10:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1815997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sonamae/pseuds/Sonamae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles doesn't realize he's using magic, but he won't take it back.  Not when Derek's guitar is in his hands and the music sounds so beautiful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Derek's Old Guitar

 The room is quiet as dust falls from the ceiling like breath from the rafters.  It’s nice to be alone in here for the moment, but also really sad.  This used to be someone’s home; people lived and grew up here.  Derek grew up here, Peter, all the Hale’s.  There’s an undercurrent of sorrow in the dust, and Stiles swallows as he sits gingerly on the chair Derek left for him earlier before he went to get garbage bags at the store.  Stiles frowns as the light flowed in through the shattered windows around him.  
  
 After a few minutes of staring at the locks, he leans over and breaks them off the case with the back of hammer he’d grabbed from the duffle bag.  The guitar case makes an almost plastic creaking noise when he opens it.  Derek had said off-hand that it used to be his.  He doesn’t care what Stiles did with it.  
  
 So curiosity got to him, and he brought it upstairs.  He’s meant to go through the place and see if anything was salvageable before Derek tore it down.  The man is so obviously tired of it, the house that is.  He’s tired of Hunters using it as a base, tired of Alpha’s scratching it up, tired of beta’s using it for sparing practice and trashing it further.  Derek is just tired, so Stiles agrees to help him out.  
  
 When he looks down at the guitar it’s a simple wooden thing covered in cheap stickers and sharpie doodles that… aren’t half-bad.  Stiles didn’t know Derek could draw… at least he thinks this would be Derek.  Maybe the man got it pre-owned and well loved, in the end the thing is obviously well loved anyway.  And surprisingly in tact, though the case is on its last leg.  
  
 Stiles reaches in and pulls the guitar out, setting it on his knee as he runs his fingers down the neck.  There is a presence there, a loving grip.  Definitely a well loved guitar.  There’s tape on the neck to mark the finger places, even silver sharpie and pencil lines.  He smirks at the thought of Derek learning guitar as a kid, frustrated and marking finger positions.  
  
 He plucks one string and frowns; the whole thing needs to be retuned.  Which doesn’t surprise him any, but it’s still sad.  He lays the back of the guitar on his knees and gets to work, and sure, he’s only tuning by ear, and it’s been a long damn time, but he still manages for something that sounds almost right.  The pegs are so smooth under his fingers; it makes Stiles miss the way he used to spend a good ten minutes tuning everyone’s instrument in class.  
  
 Ahh the good old days when he played Bass and Violin in middle school.  The years he refuses to speak of ever again because he _still_ get picked on for it.  No one appreciates the arts anymore.  Not like they should.  Derek played so many instruments it was almost insane, and Stiles had found most of them in the rubble.  But this… this is intact.  Someone loved this guitar so much that not even a fire could harm it.  
  
 Stiles plucks a string he had earlier and the note it creates is smooth, if a bit deep.  He positions the guitar properly and taps his fingers on the neck, then moves his wrist to test out the range.  When he finds the sound he wants, he plays something simple.  A scale or two, then a nursery song.  When he’s happy and filled with a smile, he plays a song he knows.  It’s slow at first, and he has to guess at several of the cords, but he gets it eventually.  
  
 It feels nice to be doing this, to have strings under his fingers and music thrumming in his soul.  Better than any magic, an uplifting feel as air rising in his lungs as he hums the tune with the sound of the guitar.  When he finishes the music echoes in the house and for a moment, Stiles can hear the warm hum of a mother’s approval, and soft laughter of a sister’s delight.  He opens his eyes, because at some point he’d closed them, and sees Derek sitting on the floor with his face in his hands.  
  
 They’re quiet for a long time before Stiles speaks. “Is it okay if I keep this?” He asks, lifting this guitar.  Derek nods, shoulders shaking. “Uhh… do you want me to keep going?” Stiles watches as Derek nods vigorously behind his hands.  Music can capture a moment, sometimes even revive it.  
  
 Stiles won’t ever mock Derek for crying as he plays ‘Tie a yellow ribbon around a old oak tree,’ especially when he hears Derek’s mother singing it from what should have been the kitchen.  He ends up playing it three times until Derek stops shaking.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shido as apart of 'Derek will never get a break' club.


End file.
